Two paths

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Matthew 7:13-14).

A missionary once used the forked branch of a tree to illustrate these words of Jesus. He had grown up in the Philippines and was now speaking to the islanders about his faith, in partnership with another man. One day the two of them hiked for many hours. They climbed steep trails and crossed five streams on log bridges. Toward evening, they came to a little wooden house on the crest of a ridge. They joined the family for their humble meal of rice. Afterwards, sitting on the porch, the missionary found a forked stick on the ground and picked it up.

"There is a lesson in this stick," he said. "Like all branches, it is divided into two ways. Life is the same. There are two roads to follow. One is the path of evil; it leads to the lake of fire. One is the path of good; it leads to the home of God. All of us try to follow the good road but we keep falling off. In the past when we did wrong things, what was our practice? We butchered a chicken or pig to appease the anger of the spirits. But we never knew for certain if we had done enough to escape their anger. So we lived in fear.

"God in heaven knew about our problem. Many years ago, God came down to earth as a man. His name was Jesus. Jesus lived a perfect life for us all. He walked the good road all the way. At the end of it, He sacrificed Himself. He poured out His own blood and died to pay the price for our wrongs. Now we don’t need to sacrifice chickens and pigs anymore. God sacrificed Himself once and for all, for us. Then He came back to life and went home to heaven.

"I have come here so you will know this." He traced his finger along the upward fork of the stick. "You can take this road to heaven, if you believe in Jesus, who loves you and died for you. Because of what Jesus did for you, when you die you will go home to be with Him in heaven."

That was the message of the forked stick. There is one way that goes to hell, the broad way of destruction. Many travel that road. There is also another way: the narrow road to heaven. It’s a road that you can walk, by God’s grace through Jesus.